North Korea nuclear disablement to begin today

North Korea will begin disabling its nuclear facilities Monday, marking the biggest step the communist country has ever taken to scale back its atomic program, the top U.S. envoy to nuclear armament talks with Pyongyang said.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the U.S. intends to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula while President George W. Bush is still in power, and that North Korea - one of the world’s most isolated countries - appeared to be opening up.

“I’d like to see us get through this in the current U.S. administration,” Hill told a press conference in Tokyo. “We started this process, and I’d like to see us finish it.”

The North shut down its sole functioning nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in July, and promised to disable it by year’s end in exchange for energy aid and political concessions from other members of talks on its nuclear program: the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

Disabling the reactor at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, would mark a further breakthrough in efforts to convince the North to scale back its nuclear program. The country conducted its first-ever nuclear test in October of last year.

“By Monday morning, they will begin their work,” Hill said, referring to the U.S. team that arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday. “It’s a very big day because it’s the first time it’s actually going to start disabling its nuclear program.”

Hill added the U.S. hoped to disable North’s uranium enrichment program by Dec. 31, not just its plutonium-production facilities at Yongbyon.

Tokyo, Sunday, AP